Transcript of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago ’s interview

Remember that the Supreme Court has already ruled that Meralco has overbilled its costumers. It is incumbent of the government to make sure that overbilling does not recur. Otherwise, we would be exercising a futile protest over post facto actions that are prejudicial to the consumer.

As chair of the Powercom, I can summon the chair of the ERC only after he has acted on the matter. We in Congress could not dictate how the ERC, which is an executive agency, should act on the matter.

Our position is this: the EPIRA law, for which the Powercom was established, clearly states as its mandate the lowering of electricity prices in the Philippines, which is one of the highest in Asia. Therefore, if state control of Meralco will result in lower electric costs, the Congress is bound by law to support that move.

In fact, I think Meralco issued a statement today that it will not hinder these moves, and will in fact support them. So it is just a question of methodology, there is no lowering electric prices because both sides appear to agree on that.

The methodology however is tricky. There are technical terms that need to be translated to the public to explain them in detail.

Normally, under the capitalist philosophy, the least participation of government if private business the better. But because the state has expressed official concern over the electric power industry by passing the EPIRA law, we shall allow matters with respect to electricity rates to be decided by the private sector based on good corporate management practices. But if the result for the consumer is significantly higher rates, then we just have to step in.